Hey guys! I'm Gothic Beanz and this is my first guide on how to build a champ. You are all probably reading this because you love playing Aatrox. Well i'm here to make you love him even more! I'm on the EU West server and i'm in cardboard 7, so listen up. In this guide, I'm going to make you awesome at Aatrox! Once you've finished reading this guide, I guarantee you will go positive with Aatrox in your next match and have something amazing to look at in your match history. Hope you enjoy!

-Pros

-Nice slow and damage thanks to Blades of Torment

-Good gap closer with Dark Flight

-Amazing attack speed with Blood Well

-Good trade offs with Blood Thirst / Blood Price

-Increased attack range with Massacre

-Nice low cooldowns

-Cons

-Abilities cost health

-Bad gap closer, IF bad at skill shots

-So OP that Riot will nerf Aatrox and Irelia

-Items cost a hell of a lot, need kills and/or farm to get a full build

Aatrox is a legendary warrior, one of only five that remain of an ancient race known as the Darkin. He wields his massive blade with grace and poise, slicing through legions in a style that is hypnotic to behold. With each foe felled, Aatrox's seemingly living blade drinks in their blood, empowering him and fueling his brutal, elegant campaign of slaughter.
The earliest tale of Aatrox is as old as recorded history. It tells of a war between two great factions remembered only as the Protectorate and the Magelords. Over time, the Magelords won a series of crushing victories, leaving them on the brink of obliterating their sworn enemy forever. On the day of their final confrontation, the Protectorate army found themselves outnumbered, exhausted, and poorly equipped. They braced for inevitable defeat.

Just when all hope seemed lost, Aatrox appeared among the ranks of the Protectorate. With but a few words, he urged the soldiers to fight to the last before throwing himself into battle. His presence inspired the desperate warriors. At first, they could only watch in awe as this unknown hero cleaved through their enemies, his body and blade moving in unison as if one being. Soon, the warriors found themselves imbued with a potent thirst for battle. They followed Aatrox into the fray, each fighting with the furious strength of ten until they had won a most unlikely victory.

Aatrox vanished after that battle, but the Protectorate army's newfound fury did not. Their surprising triumph led to many more until they were able to finally return home victorious. Their countrymen hailed them as heroes, but though they had saved their entire civilization from destruction, darkness lingered in the mind of each warrior. Something within them had changed. Over time, their memories of battle faded, only to be replaced with a grim revelation: their acts of heroism were, in fact, brutal atrocities committed by their own hands.

Tales like these appear among the myths of many cultures. If they are all to be believed, Aatrox's presence has changed the course of some of the most important wars in history. Though these stories remember him as a savior in dark times, Aatrox's true legacy may be a world filled with conflict and strife.

"Some fight for honor, some fight for glory. It matters only that you fight."

Counters and Easy Kills

Because Aatrox is a Lifesteal, Attack-Speed Champ. There are a couple champs that Aatrox is weak against:
Jax
Teemo
Fiora
Riven
Nasus
Xin Zhao
Reasons Behind the counter
1. Jax: Counter Strike Can be a effective Combo stopper for Aatrox. Combined with Empower and Grandmaster-At-Arms Jax can be a devastating foe.
2. Teemo: His passive Camouflage can easily get the drop on you. If not his Blinding Dart can cause a perfect string of attacks to be broken and damage can be lost. Blinding Dart Combined with Toxic Shot is also a weakness. especially early game.
3. Fiora: to me; Fiora Vs Aatrox is suicide. As a past Fiora player, Riposte Can be a combo blocker. her ultimate Blade Waltz Can be a combo stopper and a great opportunity for her to regain health. A good Fiora can easily use Lunge to initiate into their 1v1, Riposte to parry any incoming attacks, Blade Waltz to regain life, and Burst of Speed to easily duel him to the death. and possibly match his attack speed.
4. Riven: With Riven She can use Valor either to chase you down, block against heavy damage, or use it to gain ground for tactical advancement. A well placed Ki Burst Combined with the Third Broken Wings is a combo stopper. her passive: Runic Blade Can give her increased attack damage upon using an ability. so using Broken Wings Combined with a basic attack can maximize her damage output. Blade of the Exile gives riven increased AD, and the ability to use a ranged attack Wind Slash to catch an Aatrox at low health.
5. Nasus: A good Nasus can use Spirit Fire To lower your armor Combined with Siphoning Strike To deal Bonus damage, Wither to decrease attack speed or movement speed. And if this Nasus Really wants you. Fury of the Sands will finish you off in those combined ability combos to null any damage you try to deal.
6. Xin Zhao: Because of his tenancy to build tanky/Attack speed or armor penetration.
Killing him can be a huge pain. His passive Challenge Reduces your armor and is he has armor penetration it reduces it even more. upon engagement He will use Three Talon Strike And if he has attack speed; he will knock you up on the third attack. Disrupting your combo. Battle Cry Can allow him to heal during combat or while farming. He can activate it to increase his attack speed. if thats not enough he can use Audacious Charge Which deals damage and slows you.
Ganking him may not be 100% effective using Crescent Sweep to knock back the incoming attackers. This ability can also be used to knock you into his team or behind a turret for an easy slow with Audacious Charge and let the turret do the rest.

In your rune page you should have Greater Quintessence of Armor Penetration for the really good armour pen in the early game against people that may build quite a lot of armour, e.g. when ganking Shen For marks, run Greater Mark of Attack Damage this is good for jungling for faster jungle clearance as well as that little bit extra damage when ganking. Seals, run Greater Seal of Armor this will help with the sustain when jungling and will help you quite a lot in team fights because it gives you around 12 extra armour. Then finally, for glyphs, run either Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist or Glyph of Magic Resist to help you out a bit in team-fights against the AP Carry.

For masteries, you should run 21/9/0 this is for the sustain in the jungle as well as clearing the jungle faster. Having points in Tough Skin and Bladed Armor will really help you with your sustain in the jungle. While in the offense tree, having Butcher and extra attack damage and attack speed will definitely increase the speed of your jungle clearing, while helping you get kills and gank more efficiently.

Now for the build. With Aatrox, you'd really want to go assassin to bring down their carries first, you need to jump on them with your Dark Flight. This is why you might want to build more damage then tank. A Blade of the Ruined King is a must have on Aatrox, it gives you life steal, attack speed and an awesome active which steals their health and movement speed. Great for chasing and escaping. Ravenous Hydra is also a very good item on Aatrox, it is great for wave clearing and pushing late game or just for team fights and clearing the jungle. The boots are changeable depending on their team, if they have hard CC, get Mercury's Treads, hard AD, Ninja Tabi and if they are squishy as hell, Berserker's Greaves. With Aatrox, you can build either Tank, Damage or both, it depends on their team, you still do tons of damage either way.

With your skills, max your Blood Thirst / Blood Price first, this will help you jungle and for doing a decent amount of damage on your ganked victims. Then your Blades of Torment, it has a decent slow and damage and it can penetrate people when ganking. And then, there is your Dark Flight this is quite a good gap closer or an escape ability if you're good at skill shots. It can create team-fights, escape team-fights and is an all-round good spell. Finally, there is your ultimate ability, Massacre this increases your attack speed and attack range, it also deals damage around you for 400 damage at max level. This is great in team-fights if you have you Blood Price on, and even more damage if you have a Ravenous Hydra. Your passive is Blood Well, this is an excellent spell, it gives you an extra life and gives you around half health if your Blood Well is full. If you have a Guardian Angel the Guardian Angel pops first then, you passive pops, if you die of course. This is a great combo and the Guardian Angel is a great item to have on Aatrox.

For my summoner spells, i take Exhaust and Smite, Exhaust is a great spell for ganking, 1v1'ing and for shutting down 1 of their carries in a team fight. I choose Smite, because it is a great spell for jungling, it deals tons of damage and is great for trying to steal Baron Nashor and Dragon.

Other Possible Spells

Flash is another great spell for Aatrox, it's a great chase spell, you can escape from battles that you can't win (unlikely), and you can set up kills with it.

Ghost is good as well, it's good for chasing, escaping once again and for ganking, pop on Ghost and screw your opponents up.

Ignite is also a pretty good spell, you can reduce healing effects when ganking bot against a Soraka or Sona etc, you can secure kills and is an all round good spell.

Not So Good Spells

Teleport is not a very good spell on Aatrox because it has a massive cooldown and your a jungler, so it is pretty useless.

Cleanse because in teamfights, people will not do much to you, they will Exhaust or Ignite the carries, not you.

Revive and Clarity, Revive because it's an awful spell and should never be used, and Clarity because you don't have mana...

Play Video /league-of-legends/champion/aatrox-114

Your jungling route should be as followed:

Blessing of the lizard elder

Wraiths

Wolves

Ancient Golem

Getting the Ancient Golem on Aatrox is optional, you might take it if you want, or give it to your mid lane if they need it, ask them first. Blessing of the Lizard Elder is very good on nearly every jungler because it slows the enemy when ganking them. It also deals overtime true damage which is beast at securing kills.

Warding is a huge aspect to the game. As a jungler, you should always keep a few wards on you, unless you feel that Wriggle's Lantern is enough. Prioritize them at your buff camps in case the enemy jungler feels like counter jungling. You can also feel generous and throw a ward down near someones lane, but usually that's up to them to place a couple of wards down. Always try to keep Dragon warded, and later in the game Baron Nashor. Placing a ward could mean avoiding that brush later on with the whole rival team hidden in it.

Wards can also hinder you. If you rush to a river brush to set up a gank and see the enemy champions suddenly double back under the tower, chances are there's a ward near you. Don't be stupid and never gank that lane because there's a ward there and head back to farming. If you really want to gank, you can buy Vision Ward's and destroy enemy wards, or even ask your support to buy a couple of vision wards, then come back later to surprise the enemies and get your team a kill or even a double kill.

Team work is very important when playing Aatrox. In almost every lane, you'd want some form of CC, for example, in bot lane, i like to have Alistar, he has tons of CC and he can use his Pulverize to give me a chance to land my Dark Flight, this then makes it a double knock up and it will give your AD Carry and yourself to burst them down. In team fights, wait for their team to get in a nice bunch, then, use your Dark Flight to knock every single one of them up and with your teams damage and CC you can do a pretty good job of bursting them down. With a Ravenous Hydra, Blood Price active, a full Blood Well, your Massacre on, you will melt your enemies health. Aatrox is also very good with people with area of effect ults, for example, Orianna, Amumu, Malphite and even Varus. They will give you and your fellow carries, a chance to burst them down. Get an ace for your team, and win.

Farming in the jungle is simple with Aatrox, in early game, use Blood Thirst to regain all the health that you lose to the monsters, in mid game to late game, use Blood Price to slay monsters to clear your jungle quicker, you can do this, because by then, you'll have some sort of life steal and can take in the damage of Blood Price. Using your Blades of Torment and Dark Flight is also a good thing because it does area of effect damage and fills up your Blood Well, which gives you bonus attack speed. The bonus attack speed can be at use so you attack faster with your Blood Thirst.

Overall, Aatrox is a great champion if you know how to play him, and hopefully now, you do know how to play him! Aatrox is an all round good champion because he can make plays, escape easily, do tons of damage, carry your team to victory and is really fun to play. I look forward to seeing you on the Fields of Justice using this guide. I hope you enjoyed my first guide and hope you play more of Aatrox!